


free advertising

by eponnia



Category: COLLINS Suzanne - Works, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games & Related Fandoms
Genre: Childbirth, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Gen, POV Female Character, Parents & Children, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 07:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7213039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eponnia/pseuds/eponnia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mrs. Mellark names her children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	free advertising

In the year of the fifty-second Games, their first child is born three months after the wedding.

The newly-minted Mrs. Mellark lays in her husband's bed, the apartment above the bakery the former Brandy Oakley has scrimped and pinched and saved to keep open is filled with her screams. Candle, a healer from the Merchant side of Twelve – _as if_ Brandy would let anyone from the Seam touch her – catches the squalling infant as Brandy collapses.

"Would you like to hold your son, Mrs. Mellark?" Candle asks, and Brandy winces at a particularly shrill cry from her child.

"Give me a minute," she says curtly, allowing herself to sink into the mattress. Brandy's husband Leo takes their son carefully into the crook of his arm, tears glinting in his eyes as the infant grabs his finger.

She rolls her eyes.

After Candle leaves, Brandy begrudgingly holds her son as he continues to wail; with a sigh, she tries to quiet him for the sake of the headache building behind her eyes.

"What do you want to name him?" Leo asks gently, watching their son with a tenderness Brandy was assured she would feel after seven hours of labor, but has yet to experience.

"Barley."

"Why?"

"People will see him, think of bread, and then they'll come to the bakery. It's easy business."

"Should we really put that on a child?" Leo wonders.

"It's free advertising," she snaps, and Barley shrieks anew.

* * *

In the year of the fifty-fourth Games, their second child is born just before the Harvest Festival.

This labor is quicker, but no less intense, and she declines again when Candle asks if Brandy wants to hold the less-than-a-minute-old infant.

"What about Jacob? Or Emmett? Gavin? Seamus?" Leo asks, gently rocking their newest son - heavier than Barley was - as Brandy rolls her eyes once more.

Barley is brought into the room by Brandy's mother-in-law, and Leo sits on the edge of the bed to show the two-year-old Barley the newest addition to the family.

"Here's your brother."

"What's his name?" Barley curiously asks.

"We don't have a name yet–" Leo starts to answer, but Brandy interrupts.

"His name is Rye."

Her husband sighs.

* * *

In the year of the fifty-eighth Games, their third child fights to live.

Brandy spends fifteen hours on her back, crushing Leo's hand and cursing everyone in sight, but finally, _finally_ , the tiny infant slips into Candle's hands as an orange sunset glows behind the curtains.

Except he doesn't cry.

He gasps as Candle looks him over and wipes him down, but he doesn't scream like Barley and Rye did. Brandy takes the opportunity to close her eyes as her husband and the nurse fuss over the infant. But just as Brandy starts to drift off, her third child squawks, and she opens her eyes with a barely-restrained sigh.

Candle hands the infant to Leo without asking Brandy, and the baker's wife watches as her husband carefully supports the tiny newborn.

"He's on the small side," Candle says, packing her bag, "but he'll live."

After Candle leaves, six-year-old Barley and four-year-old Rye come to the door with Leo's mother. They peer at their new brother until Barley says, "He's _small_."

"Yes," their father says gently. "But he'll get bigger."

"What's his name?" Brandy’s mother-in-law asks.

Leo only smiles tiredly and replies, "Why don't you ask Brandy?"

The two boys, their grandmother and their father turn to look at Brandy, and she stares for a moment at the infant with the dusting of golden hair dozing in Leo's arms.

"Peeta. His name is Peeta."


End file.
